Trump's residents loathe his politics, but they love his buildings

Most were happy to own or rent apartments in buildings bearing the Trump name, all high-end buildings with doormen and other amenities.

40 Wall Street, owned by The Trump Organization

Michael Zanussi/Flickr

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New Yorkers who live in luxury towers emblazoned with Donald Trump's name said on Wednesday they separate what they called his political blunders from his real estate genius and feel the property's cache is as valuable as ever.

“As far as the name goes, it’s a good brand. I’m not going to take that away from him because of that crazy talk,” said Amjad Pervez, 45, referring to the Republican presidential front-runner's proposed ban on Muslims from entering the country.

Pervez, a real estate agent and married father of two who owns and lives in a two-bedroom apartment at Trump Place overlooking the Hudson River, said the billionaire developer's comments were repulsive, echoing the most common sentiment shared by more than a dozen New Yorkers interviewed outside their homes in Manhattan properties with the Trump moniker.

Still, most were happy to own or rent apartments in buildings bearing the Trump name, all high-end buildings with doormen and other amenities.

Trump’s real estate portfolio has grown to include at least 10 luxury residential buildings in Manhattan, in addition to commercial skyscrapers, hotels and golf courses elsewhere in the United States and around the globe.

Bonnie Chajet, a real estate agent who was showing an apartment to a prospective buyer at Trump International Hotel & Tower, which overlooks the west side of Central Park, said, "I think people are probably able to separate who he is from where they're living."

Outside the United States, the real estate mogul's plan to bar Muslims has hurt his brand in the Middle East. A major chain of department stores in the region halted sales of his glitzy "Trump Home" line of home furnishings and business executives in Dubai made it clear they were uneasy using his brand name there.

But New Yorkers seem to be more nonchalant. New York property owners said regardless of how offensive they found Trump's political views, they had no plans to switch addresses to disassociate themselves from the Trump name.

"I find him morally repugnant," said Georgia Curatola, a married woman who has rented an apartment for five years at Trump Parc along the southern border of Central Park. "The services are wonderful, but I wish they would take the name down."